I've got an external 4x enclosure connected via eSata.  The (single for now) drive spins up, and the eSata connection indicator is good.  I don't see any unassigned devices in my list, and I'm stuck.  This is running on a Dell minitower (i5-4430 / 16GB) with an eSata card added.

 

I haven't tried the unit in USB mode, but i'd prefer not to.

 

Adding - I already have a 3 x 8 TB array with a single 8TB parity drive.  Trying to add more storage externally since I'm out of physical space in the chassis.

 

Feedback appreciated.

Edited December 3, 20214 yr by Graber
Clarification

Please post the diagnostics.

Diagnostics addedunicorn-diagnostics-20211203-0839.zip

Is it this disk?

 

Dec  3 05:34:53 UNICORN kernel: ata11.00: ATA-10: ST8000DM004-2U9188,             ZR11ZNC1, 0001, max UDMA/133

 

If yes looks like the controller had a difficult time detecting, but appears to be detected correctly now, though Marvell controllers are not recommended.

@JorgeBYou are correct - that disk is now appearing in the unassigned devices list.  I wonder what changed - the post was after two reboots, but perhaps I just needed to wait longer for detection.  Two follow ups - where can you see the reference to the Marvell controller?  Is that the controller within the ProBox?  The pci card in the tower is a $30 StarTech - also nothing special.

 

I'd love to be able to troubleshoot this myself if it occurs again.  Where should I look in the logs?  Once you identified the disk, I did some searching for it in the text files, but I cannot infer the error (delay?) from what I found.

 

Thanks for your help!

This is dated, but I used this as reference for my setup.

 

 

 

Are other enclosures/cards recommended?

1 minute ago, Graber said:

I wonder what changed

Likely nothing, it might fail the next time, there were various errors before it was detected, assuming the disk is OK it could be a controller/cable problem.

 

3 minutes ago, Graber said:

Two follow ups - where can you see the reference to the Marvell controller?

It's in the server, see here for a list of recommended ones:

 

4 minutes ago, Graber said:

Where should I look in the logs?

In the syslog, look for these and similar:

 

Dec  3 05:33:13 UNICORN kernel: ata11: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 330)
Dec  3 05:33:40 UNICORN kernel: ata11: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 330)
Dec  3 05:33:45 UNICORN kernel: ata11.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
Dec  3 05:33:45 UNICORN kernel: ata11.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
Dec  3 05:33:46 UNICORN kernel: ata11: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 330)
Dec  3 05:33:56 UNICORN kernel: ata11.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
Dec  3 05:33:56 UNICORN kernel: ata11.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
Dec  3 05:33:56 UNICORN kernel: ata11: limiting SATA link speed to 3.0 Gbps
Dec  3 05:33:56 UNICORN kernel: ata11: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 320)
Dec  3 05:34:16 UNICORN kernel: ata11.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x100)
Dec  3 05:34:17 UNICORN kernel: ata11: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 320)

 

 

 

Thanks.  All three components are new.  I'll use it unassigned for a bit to monitor.

Mediasonic has an esata card that is compatible with their Mediasonic Probox.

 

http://forum.mediasonic.ca/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1107

 

Mediasonic eSata III PCIe card HP1-SS3

 

Specs:
ASMEDIA-asm1061 chipset
2 x eSATA Port - Transfer rate up to 6.0 Gbps
Support Port Multiplier and FIS-Based switch
Support up to 8 hard drive
PCI Express Base Secification Rev 2.0
PCI Express Card Electromechanical Rev 2.0
Serial ATA AHCI Spec. Rev 1.3
Serial ATA Revision 3.0
One lan PCI Express for 2.5 and 5.0 Ghz signaling
Single vitrual Channel
SSC support
ECRC and Advnced Error Reporting Capability
2 ports Serial ATA PHY for 1.5, 3.0 and 6.0 GHz signaling
Support IDE/AHCI mode
Support Native Command Queue (NCQ)
Support Gen1m and Gen2m SATA PHY

 

Have you resolved your issue?

 

I ask as I have the same Mediasonic ProBox but mine supports USB 3.0 and esata. Does not support USB 3.1.

 

I  have the Mediasonic esata card and used it in Windows 10 drivepool and Zorin-Os (Ubuntu based) samba shares and it was been very stable via both USB & e-sata. I even had a mdadm raid 0 running on it. Never had an issue. I did try it on my Unraid server (unassigned disks only) and I started to experience freezing and crashes when using esata. Not sure if this is due to the I915 issue or the card.

 

Just curious if you found a solution. Or tried the Mediasonic esata card.

 

Cheers

 

 

I'm having a similar issue with this unit:

Mediasonic PROBOX 4 Bay 3.5” SATA Hard Drive Enclosure – USB 3.0 & eSATA Support 18TB HDD (HF2-SU3S3) 2022 New Chipset

 

* Update: I  reinstalled the drives with the largest capacity in the top slot, then next largest, etc...and now it's working.  I had the smallest on top the first time, just an OCD/ADHD quirk I have

Edited August 18, 20223 yr by PapaThiele

It is my understanding that any drives in the Mediasonic ProBox enclosure can not be added to the array and can only be utilized as unassigned drives. Am I correct?